Martin Bobgan
Psychological counseling theories and therapies have given Americans a new way of thinking and have turned our country into a therapeutic culture of the self—where the self and how it feels about itself are at the center of meaning. People from coast to coast have embraced a psychological mindset that puts emotional deprivation and woundedness as the root cause of nearly every personal and social problem. This mindset has the potential to make everyone into a victim needing the services of the ever-expanding mental-health system. Fifteen years ago Charles Sykes wrote a book titled A Nation of Victims: The Decay of the American Character, in which he says:
The ethos of victimization has an endless capacity not only for exculpating one’s self from blame, washing away responsibility in a torrent of explanation—racism, sexism, rotten parents, addiction, and illness—but also for projecting guilt onto others.1
Sykes also says, “The impulse to flee from personal responsibility and blame others seems far more deeply embedded within the American culture.”2 In fact, he declares, “The National Anthem has become The Whine,” and explains, “Increasingly, Americans act as if they had received a lifelong indemnification from misfortune and a contractual release from personal responsibility.”3
Psychological Mindset
The psychological mindset evolved out of the fairly recent development of clinical psychology (including psychotherapy, counseling psychology, and marriage and family counseling), which was birthed in colleges and universities around 1950 and expanded through politics and money.4 Since that time, it has exploded to the extent that Dr. Ellen Herman describes psychology’s popularity and impact on the Western world this way in her book titled The Romance of American Psychology:
Psychological insight is the creed of our time. In the name of enlightenment, experts promise help and faith, knowledge and comfort. They devise confident formulas for happy living and ambitious plans for dissolving the knots of conflict. Psychology, according to its boosters, possesses worthwhile answers to our most difficult personal questions and practical solutions for our most intractable social problems
Herman also says:
In the late twentieth-century United States, we are likely to believe what psychological experts tell us. They speak with authority to a vast audience and have become familiar figures in most communities, in the media, and in virtually every corner of popular culture. Their advice is a big business.6
The kind of psychology that carries this power to turn people into victims is psychotherapy with its underlying psychologies, such as Sigmund Freud’s theory of the unconscious and Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, along with an estimated 500 different counseling systems and their theories. After all, who has a perfect life, certainly none of the theorists, all of whom developed their systems out of their own personal lives and creative imagination?7
In her book Manufacturing Victims: What the Psychology Industry Is Doing to People, Dr. Tana Dineen reveals what the so-called caring profession has become. She begins her book with the following words and the rest of her book proves her point:
Psychology presents itself as a concerned and caring profession working for the good of its clients. But behind the benevolent facade is a voracious, self-serving industry that proffers “facts” which are often unfounded, provides “therapy” which can be damaging, and exerts influence, which is having devastating effects on the social fabric.8
Dineen also says:
It is not news to say that psychology has become an influential cultural force or that society is becoming more and more filled with people who consider themselves victims who are psychologically needy in one way or another.
What is news is that psychology is manufacturing most of these victims; that it is doing this with motives based on power and profit (emphasis hers).9
While, indeed, there are real victims, the psychotherapeutic mindset has trivialized the horrors that some people have experienced by so expanding the meaning that now everyone qualifies if they want to. The role of victim can actually be quite enticing. Besides qualifying for sympathy from friends, engaging in endless psychological therapy centered on self, and gaining exoneration from responsibility and guilt, being a victim provides a new identity of being the hero or heroine in one’s own drama of overcoming horrendous obstacles in the grand quest for psychological healing. Rather than having to face the ugly fact of their own sin without excuse or reason or blame-shifting, they choose to be victims. Dr. Carol Tavris and Dr. Elliot Aronson describe the usefulness of victimhood that comes from recovered memory therapy in their book titled Mistakes Were Made (but not by me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts. They say:
Why would people claim to remember that they had suffered harrowing experiences if they hadn’t, especially when that belief causes rifts with families or friends? By distorting their memories, these people can “get what they want by revising what they had,” and what they want is to turn their present lives, no matter how bleak or mundane, into a dazzling victory over adversity. Memories of abuse also help them resolve the dissonance between “I am a smart, capable person” and “My life sure is a mess right now” with an explanation that makes them feel good and removes responsibility: “It’s not my fault my life is a mess. Look at the horrible things they did to me.”10
Psychological Mindset Christianized?
Yes, we are surrounded by a nation of victims with a therapeutic mindset, but wait—we are Christians! How does this affect those of us who have been given new life through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross? What does this have to do with the Gospel and with living the Christian life? Plenty!
Almost as soon as the romance of psychology took hold of Americans, it was embraced by Christians who believed psychological counseling theories and therapies would be useful for helping Christians. These psychological counseling ideas were brought into pastoral counseling classes in numerous seminaries. Next came the “Christian psychologists” who devised a plan to integrate counseling psychologies theories and therapies with Christianity, both for counseling believers and for instructing the saints about how to live the Christian life. And now, what is the advice people hear when they are struggling with emotional distress and problems of living? “You need counseling.” And, what they mean is professional counseling, psychotherapy and its underlying theories of the self. Why? Because they believe a lie that, in essence, says that the cross of Christ, the Word of God, the work of the Holy Spirit, and the fellowship of believers are not enough for people with emotional or relational problems of living and that Christians need what only psychological theories and therapies can do. This is because of what Sykes calls:
The triumph of the therapeutic mentality … which insisted upon seeing the immemorial questions of human life as problems that required solutions. The therapeutic culture provided both in abundance: The therapists transformed age-old human dilemmas into psychological problems and claimed that they (and they alone) had the treatment.11
This lie about the Word of God, the work of the Holy Spirit, and the fellowship of the saints not being sufficient for dealing with so-called psychological problems of living is promoted by numerous leaders and believed throughout the church. One of them is Dr. Bruce Narramore, Distinguished Professor at Rosemead School of Psychology at Biola University, who says: “I think the critics [of psychology] need to ask, ‘Why are people so interested in psychology?’ The thought is that we ought to go back to the old way. But the old way wasn’t working.”12 Narramore says this without proof or evidence and thereby implies that for nearly 2000 years God failed to supply His children with the means of dealing with problems of living.
The integration of the theories and therapies of counseling psychology has succeeded in turning the body of Christ into a bunch of victims. If this were a book title, the subtitle could be “The Demise of Biblical Ministry.” In its eager embrace of this kind of psychology, the church has left its first love and fallen for the wisdom of man and “philosophy and vain deceit” (1 Cor. 2; Col. 2:8). That this kind of psychology is now regular fare in churches across America can be seen in the observation of Dr. Frank Furedi in his book Therapy Culture, in which he says: “A study of ‘seeker churches’ in the US argues that their ability to attract new recruits is based on their ability to tap into the therapeutic understanding of Americans.”13 He sees this as a preoccupation with the self, and, indeed, that is what it is all about—self!
All About Self
The focus of psychological therapy is on self and its problems from the perspective that the self is essentially good, but wounded emotionally by circumstances and other people. Therefore more and more Christians are seeing themselves as innocent victims with their “mistakes” and problems of living being due to other people and circumstances beyond their control. Worse yet, some, who have been convinced that the source of their problems is what happened to them as young children, spend months and years in therapy and/or in so-called inner healing. Some are trying to gain insight by remembering real events and some are searching for supposedly forgotten memories of abuse and neglect. Others are encouraged to see a figure of Jesus add something to the memory to heal or change it, but, since this is all in their imagination, they end up with a false Jesus. The idea in all of this kind of counseling and inner healing is that self has been harmed in some way and must be helped and healed.
Psychotherapy thus attempts to fix the self so that its so-called essential goodness can be experienced and expressed. The psychological mindset sees the problem as on the outside. The solution is found within the self, albeit with the help of those who have special psychological knowledge. Self is central and must be nurtured with self-love, self-esteem, and self-worth, all of which are supposed to lead to self-fulfillment, but which generally increase self-absorption, self-centeredness, and self-indulgence.
In contrast, the Word of God presents the truth about mankind, that we are sinners by nature and therefore not essentially good in ourselves. Romans 3:10 says: “There is none righteous, no not one” and verse 23 says, “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” The problem of sin comes from within and the solution comes from outside ourselves, from God Himself through the cross of Christ, who bore our sin, and purchased our new life, which is received by grace through faith and lived by grace through faith.
Victim or Sinner?
One of the main goals of much counseling psychology is to relieve guilt so that individuals can feel better about themselves and thereby supposedly handle their lives more effectively. Helping an individual see himself as needy, emotionally wounded, and having been harmed or disappointed by others is one convenient way to sidestep personal responsibility, sin, and guilt. This is the opposite of the Bible, which provides the true remedy for sin and the only remedy for the human condition through Jesus Christ and all He accomplished to rid one of sin and guilt.
The whole of Scripture points to the Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the world. Its focal point is Jesus Christ satisfying God’s wrath against sin and procuring forgiveness and new life for believers. Christianity is all about living the new life and reckoning oneself dead to the old life. Christianity is not about focusing on problems and on other people’s sins and shortcomings, and it is not about dredging up the past to fix the present. The Christian life is about confessing one’s own sin, walking according to the new life in Christ, and “forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before” towards the goal of the “high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:13,14).
The early church had the one remedy for everyone’s present problems and past circumstances: the cross of Christ! The magnitude of each person’s sin against God from the cradle to the grave is more than anyone could bear to imagine, but Jesus took it all upon Himself so that he could give every believer new life. He, who knew no sin, died in the place of those who were by nature sin. He did not just come to fix the flesh (the old nature). He came to put it on the cross so that believers, by identifying with Him, could reckon themselves dead to the old and alive to the new.
Everyone has been adversely affected by the sins of others to some degree, but the adverse effects or the sinful tendencies from parents or sinful ways learned from them reside in the flesh (old nature). Our flesh is therefore the problem, not something outside ourselves, either past or present. Therefore, the Bible does not teach people to nurture their so-called “inner child” or to develop self-esteem or to probe their early childhood years to look for ways that adults failed them in any way. The Bible does not advise anyone to remember and re-experience past pain, disappointments, or even abuse for the sake of personal or spiritual growth. The Bible does not suggest that people must be healed emotionally before they can believe God or before they can grow spiritually.
Considering the grievous circumstances and the childhoods of many of the Gentile Christians, the early church had plenty of potential “victims” (many born and raised in slavery with the accompanying sexual and physical abuse and being treated as less than human). But, did the church treat them as victims needing to heal their emotional wounds or to remember the pain of the past in order to know God and to grow spiritually? No! The Bible does not portray mankind as victims, but as sinners. Jesus died for sinners, not victims!
The Way of the Cross
The way of the cross is a totally different way of dealing with serious life issues and problems of living. Rather than trying to remember the past and somehow rework painful memories through therapy or so-called inner healing, Christians need to reckon themselves dead to the past by identifying with Christ’s death and to live according to their new life in Christ. Everything needs to be taken to the cross instead of relived and talked about. Nevertheless, many of the people who promote this senseless return to the past agree that Christ died for our sins, but insist that many Christians still need healing from the past. However, digging up old memories for the purpose of changing one’s present life is counterproductive to the cross and in effect denies the finished work of Christ.
Jesus said, “It is finished.” So we say to fellow Christians: Identify with those words when you bring sin to the cross, your own sin and the sins committed against you. Recognize that Jesus suffered the pain and eternal consequence of those sins. He felt the pain and agony of every sin you have committed and the pain of every sin committed against you. He took it all and said, “It is finished.” If a memory with its pain comes back, treat it as a temptation from the enemy, who wants to rob you of the truth of what Christ did and to undermine your identification with Him, both in His death and resurrection. Satan always works to keep Christians struggling in the flesh, because that is where they are the most vulnerable and because he hates the life of Christ in every believer. He is most pleased when Christians walk according to the flesh or their old nature. Therefore, the devil is pleased with all forms of psychological therapy and related forms of inner healing, including Theophostic Prayer Ministry.14
Think Biblically, Not Psychologically
Christians need to think biblically when they read books about how to live and deal with problems of living. They need to guard their thinking when watching or listening to believers or unbelievers talking about how to deal with the issues of life and about what it is to be a Christian. They need to be alert to such expressions as: felt needs, rejection, broken lives, repression, denial, defense mechanisms, inferiority complex, sublimation, projection, transference, maladjustment, low self-esteem, the unconscious, hidden reservoirs, hidden memories, emotional wounds, emotional healing, codependence, addiction, compulsion, trauma, stress, identity crisis. Every behavior imaginable has the possibility of a psychological maldescription.
Utilizing psychological therapies or inner healing blinds Christians to the glory of the cross and the great love that was poured out for them. Those who are willing to face their own depravity and the sins they continue to commit after they have received new life and who honestly look at what Jesus bore in their place have a greater realization of God’s love. Jesus said, “To whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little” (Luke 7:47). Thus, by seeing the magnitude of what Christ forgave them, believers know His love, and by knowing and receiving His love, are enabled to love Him back and His love in them flows out to others. The cross is the answer to all the pain of the past, and Jesus is the answer for every present problem of living. Here is the victory won by Christ and worked into the fabric of believers’ lives as they reckon themselves dead to their old life and alive unto Him. No wonder the enemy of our souls has invented such an enticing trap into victimhood!
Believers do not transform their lives through looking at the sins of others or by revisiting the past, but by confessing their own sin and believing that Jesus took it all. Believers need to leave their own sin and the sins committed against them on the cross and not try to remember, reconstruct, fix or transform the so-called inner child, which is actually the old nature or flesh. They are to live by the new life Jesus has procured for them, the new life that stretches forward into eternity. Colossians 2:6-10 says:
As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power.
The Word of God continually calls believers back to their source of new life, back to faith in Christ and all he accomplished for living the new life. Believers are not called to be victims of their present circumstances or their past or of a powerful motivating unconscious supposedly formed during early life. They are to be walking by faith, growing in faith, and “abounding therein with thanksgiving.” That does not sound like the whine of the victims.
Furthermore, Paul warns believers not to be robbed of what they have in Christ through “philosophy and vain deceit” that turns them into victims. Psychological counseling theories are not science. They more aptly fall into Paul’s category of “philosophy and vain deceit.” Indeed, they resemble religion more than science. Dr. Thomas Szasz states the case very clearly in his book The Myth of Psychotherapy: “Herein lies one of the supreme ironies of modem psychotherapy: it is not merely a religion that pretends to be a science, it is actually a fake religion that seeks to destroy true religion.Ó15 Psychological counseling theories are collections of human opinions arranged in theoretical frameworks. They are human inventions based on the perception and personal experiences of the theorists themselves. They are “profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: which some professing have erred concerning the faith”(1 Tim. 6:20-21).
Even when Paul was beaten and left for dead, he did not see himself as a victim, but as a recipient of the very life of Christ by grace through faith. Therefore he declared: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). Rather than victims forever seeking to be healed of emotional wounds, Christians are new creations in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17), fully equipped for challenges, trials, disappointments, dangers, and all sorts of calamities. Christ has won the victory and “ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power.”
Victimization shifts the attention away from one’s own responsibility for what is thought, said, and done. Victimization shifts attention away from one’s own sin and onto the sins of others committed against them. Victimization diverts believers away from the cross of Christ. Victimization robs them of gratitude for God’s unspeakable gift and thereby robs them of a close walk with Him. Turning Christians into victims weakens their faith and stunts spiritual growth. Every choice to walk according to the Spirit by grace through faith brings spiritual maturity. The choice is up to every believer, whether to be a psychologically defined and created victim or to be a biblically defined sinner saved by grace and growing into the likeness of Christ.
(PsychoHeresy Awareness Letter, May-June 2008, Vol. 16, No. 3)
“Just read your article on victims (PsychoHeresy )…
I used to feel like everything that I went through was not my fault. I was angry at God. My mom had mental illness, I was raped by 3 men, abused in my first marriage, boyfriend killed in accident, and blah blah blah. But one day that outlook changed. What was it? I took responsibility. I put myself in bad situations. I made poor choices that led me to those circumstances. I ignored God’s voice. I…I..I….I was the reason. Not God. Once I realized that, God was able to come in and take care of business. My relationship with God was mended. God was merciful and he blessed me beyond what I deserve. He is in control. Not me. Being the victim puts you in the driving seat—I was driving around in circles. That’s all being a victim does. Gets u nowhere in a hurry. I want God to be my driver. I don’t want the control. Let Him take me where He will.
But there are sooo many people who can make anything an act of victimization! They twist innocent words or events to make themselves the victim. It’s toxic for the soul. It eats away at the victim and seeps into those around them. It’s all about the rush. The attention. People can be quick to feed these lions with the food they seek. Dangerous.” anonymous
Endnotes
1 Charles J. Sykes. A Nation of Victims: The Decay of the American Character. New York: St. MartinÕs Press, 1992, p. 11.
2 Ibid., pp. 14,15.
3 Ibid., p. 15.
4 Rogers H. Wright and Nicholas A. Cummings, eds. The Practice of Psychology: The Battle for Professionalism. Phoenix, AZ: Zeig, Tucker & Theisen, Inc., 2001.
5 Ellen Herman. The Romance of American Psychology. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1195, 1996, p. 1.
6 Ibid.
7 Harvey Mindess. Makers of Psychology: The Personal Factor. New York: Insight Books, 1988; Linda Riebel, ÒTheory as Self-Portrait and the Ideal of Objectivity,Ó Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Spring 1982.
8 Tana Dineen. Manufacturing Victims: What the Psychology Industry is Doing to People. Montreal, QB: Robert Davies Multimedia Publishing, 1996, 1998, 2000, p. 15.
9 Ibid., pp. 17,18.
10 Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson. Mistakes Were Made (but not by me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts. New York: Harcourt, Inc., 2007, p. 94.
11 Sykes, op. cit., p. 34.
12 Bruce Narramore, Christianity Today, May 17, 1993, p. 26.
13 Frank Furedi. Therapy Culture: Cultivating Vulnerability in an Uncertain Age. New York: Routledge, 2004, p. 18.
14 See Martin and Deidre Bobgan. Theophostic Counseling: Divine Revelation? Or PsychoHeresy? Santa Barbara, CA: EastGate Publishers, 1999.
15 Thomas Szasz. The Myth of Psychotherapy. Garden City: Anchor/Doubleday Press, 1978, p. 28.
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Apostasy
Calvinism’s Origins and Historical Roots [podcast]

Calvinism’s Origins and Historical Roots
How did Calvinism Come about? Where did John Calvin derive his teachings, doctrines which many hold to today?
False Doctrines of the “Pope” of Geneva
Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, and Perseverance of the Saints.
HERE’S WHERE THE TULIP, THE 5 SOLAS, THE 5 POINTS OF CALVINISM CAME FROM. IT’S A CURSED ROOT AND THAT’S WHY CALVINISM CAN BRING FORTH NOTHING EXCEPT CURSED FRUIT (Matthew 12:33).
Calvinism was cursed from the beginning, at the root. Calvinism is “another gospel,” a false gospel, and a totally heretical system of theology spawned from an “accursed” demon-possessed wolf who murdered over 60 men and women for disagreeing with his lies (Galatians 1:6-9).
Was John Calvin the worst wolf in church history?
Demon possessed maniac John Calvin wrote the following:
“Chapter Four – Unbiblical Beliefs and Failures of John Calvin
Calvin on the Bible: In 1536 Calvin wrote: “The Bible is a knotty, difficult text, whose interpretation demands extensive knowledge. If brought into contact with it unceremoniously, many minds are upset and seized with confusion. The Bible is too old a text in too new a world.”23
God willed that man sin. Calvin wrote “God, in a secret and marvellous way, justly wills, the things which men unjustly do.” . . . “Although God and the devil will the same thing: they do so in an utterly different manner.”24 He said that God did not will that all men be saved saying, “. . .that few receive the Gospel; we must fully conclude, that the cause is the will of God; and that the outward sound of that Gospel strikes the ear in vain, until God is pleased to touch, by it, the heart within.”24
Calvinism is not only not “biblical Christianity”, it is a gross attack on the original Gospel of Jesus Christ and the character of a loving and just God. The origins of the cult of calvinism are disturbing to put it lightly. Its roots are cursed. It is “another gospel” and so all who espouse and promulgate it are “accursed.” (Galatians 1:6-9).
The following is from Kent Rieske
Everything One must first study the man, John Calvin, in order to understand the theology that has come to be called Calvinism. Here’s some facts you should know about this demonic fraud: Calvin was born July 10, 1509, in Picardy at Noyon, France, to devout Roman Catholic parents as Jean Chauvin and died at Geneva, May 27, 1564, at age 54. The family name, spelled in many ways, was Cauvin, latinized according to the custom of the age as Calvinus. John is commonly called Maître Jean C. Maître Jean C. is French for Master John C. His mother, Jeanne Le Franc, born in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cambrai, is mentioned as “beautiful and devout.” She took her little son to various shrines and brought him up a good Catholic. John was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church as an infant. On the father’s side, his ancestors were seafaring men. His grandfather settled at Pont l’Evêque near Paris and had two sons who became locksmiths. The third, Gerard, became procurator at Noyon and had four sons and two daughters. John Calvin’s father, Gerard, an attorney, had purchased the freedom of the City of Noyon where he practiced civil and canon law. Gerard’s four sons were made clerics and held benefices at a tender age. John was given one when a boy of twelve. He became Curé of Saint-Martin de Marteville in the Vermandois in 1527 and of Pont l’Eveque in 1529. Three of the boys attended the local Collège des Capettes, and there John proved himself an apt scholar.
Calvin’s formal education was complete in 1527 when he was eighteen. According to the Catholics, he drifted from his Roman Catholic faith to become a humanist and a reformer. The “sudden conversion” to a spiritual life in 1529 could possibly be interpreted as his becoming saved, but throughout his life he counted on his Roman Catholic infant baptism as the basis of his regeneration.
Theological Seminaries Are Centers for Higher Brainwashing.
John Calvin studied the voluminous writings of Saint Augustine, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Hippo (354-430 AD), much more so than those of Martin Luther, his contemporary. Calvin is continually praising Augustine’s work with numerous references and quotations. Augustine was greatly influenced by the Gnostics, an early Christian sect, whose doctrine was heretical. Gnostics believed that mankind was wholly evil, and some sects even renounced marriage and procreation. They also believed in two gods, one evil and one good. Their teachings are believed to have influenced Saint Augustine in the development of his theology of the “total depravity” of mankind and his concept of God. For nine years Saint Augustine adhered to Manichaeism, a Persian dualistic philosophy proclaimed by Mani (216-276? AD) in southern Babylonia (Iraq) that taught a doctrine of “total depravity” and the claim that they were the “elect.” Augustine could not advance in his Manichaeism religion because of his sinful lifestyle. He had a reputation as a “womanizer” and a fornicator.
Manichaeism – Wikipedia Encyclopedia
Manichaeism – Catholic Encyclopedia
Manichaeism – MSN Encarta Encyclopedia
Augustine then turned to skepticism and was attracted to the philosophy of Neoplatonism. He blended these beliefs with his later Gnostic and Christian teachings. Augustine’s prolific writings were more strongly biased by his previously-obtained theology than on his detailed study of the Christian Scriptures. He used Christian Scripture out of context when words or phrases could be adapted to match his theology. Augustine’s teachings were in turn passed on to John Calvin through his extensive study of Augustine’s writings, the most popular being his book, Confessions. It is very easy to follow the trail of John Calvin’s theology from the pagan religion of Mani in Babylonia to Saint Augustine and into his own writings in France and Geneva that distort the Word of God. Calvin’s false doctrine came directly from Augustine.
Calvin’s Book Supersedes the Bible
Calvin’s famous letter to King Francis I was dated August 23, 1535. It served as a prologue to his book, Institutes of the Christian Religion, the first edition of which was written in March 1536, not in French but in Latin. Calvin’s apology for lecturing the king was displayed as placards posted all over the realm denouncing the Protestants as rebels. King Francis I did not read these pages, but if he had done so he would have discovered in them a plea not for toleration, which Calvin utterly scorned, but for doing away with Catholicism in favor of the new gospel. “There could be only one true Church; therefore, kings ought to make an utter end of popery,” said the young theologian. The second edition of Calvin’s Institutes was written in 1539; the first French translation in 1541; the final in Latin, as revised by its author, in 1559; but that in common use, dated 1560, has additions by his disciples.
We know little of Calvin’s previous activities, but because of a war between King Charles V and King Francis I, he settled his family affairs and reached Bale by way of Geneva in July, 1536. He persuaded two of his brothers and two sisters to accept the Reformed views he had adopted and took them with him. At Geneva the Swiss preacher, Fare, then looking for help with his propaganda, besought Calvin with such vehemence to stay and teach his theologies that, as Calvin himself relates, he was terrified into submission. As a student, reclusive and new to public responsibilities, he may well have hesitated before plunging into the troubled waters of Geneva, then at their stormiest period.
Calvin had not introduced the legislative articles of Geneva; however, it was mainly by his influence that in January, 1537, the articles were approved which insisted on communion four times a year, set spies on delinquents, established a moral censorship, and punished the unruly with excommunication. There was to be a children’s catechism, which he drew up. The articles caused a dispute, and the city became divided into “jurants” who swore an oath to the articles and “nonjurors” who would not accept them. Questions had arisen with Berne concerning the points of major dispute, but Calvin made the claim in Lausanne for the freedom of Geneva. Discourse ensued in Geneva, where the opposition became more obstinate. In 1538 the council exiled Farel, Calvin, and the blind evangelist, Couraud from Geneva.
Calvin complained of his poverty and ill health, but these did not prevent him from marrying Idelette de Bure, the widow of an Anabaptist whom he had converted. Nothing more is known of this lady except that she bore him a son who died almost at birth in 1542, and that her own death took place in 1549.
Calvin’s Reign of Terror
After some negotiation, Ami Perrin, commissioner for Geneva, persuaded Calvin to return. He did so, though unwillingly, on September 13, 1541. His entry was modest. Geneva was a church-city-state of 15,000 people, and the church constitution now recognized “pastors, doctors, elders and deacons,” but the supreme power was given to the magistrate, John Calvin. In November 1552, the Council declared Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion to be a “holy doctrine which no man might speak against.” Thus the State issued dogmatic decrees, the force of which had been anticipated earlier, as when Jacques Gruet, a known opponent of Calvin, was arrested, tortured for a month and beheaded on July 26, 1547, for placing a letter in Calvin’s pulpit calling him a hypocrite. Gruet’s book was later found and burned along with his house while his wife was thrown out into the street to watch. Gruet’s death was more highly criticized by far than the banishment of Castellio or the penalties inflicted on Bolsec — moderate men opposed to extreme views in discipline and doctrine, who fell under suspicion as reactionary. Calvin did not shrink from his self-appointed task. Within five years fifty-eight sentences of death and seventy-six of exile, besides numerous committals of the most eminent citizens to prison, took place in Geneva. The iron yoke could not be shaken off. In 1555, under Ami Perrin, a revolt was attempted. No blood was shed, but Perrin lost the day, and Calvin’s theocracy triumphed. John Calvin had secured his grip on Geneva by defeating the very man who had invited him there, Ami Perrin, commissioner of Geneva.
John Calvin – Wikipedia Encyclopedia
John Calvin – Catholic Encyclopedia
John Calvin – MSN Encarta Encyclopedia
Calvin forced the citizens of Geneva to attend church services under a heavy threat of punishment. Since Calvinism falsely teaches that God forces the elect to believe, it is no wonder that Calvin thought he could also force the citizens of Geneva to all become the elect. Not becoming one of the elect was punishable by death or expulsion from Geneva. Calvin exercised forced regeneration on the citizens of Geneva, because that is what his theology teaches.
Michael Servetus, a Spaniard, physician, scientist and Bible scholar, was born in Villanova in 1511. He was credited with the discovery of the pulmonary circulation of the blood from the right chamber of the heart through the lungs and back to the left chamber of the heart. He was Calvin’s longtime friend in their earlier resistance against the Roman Catholic Church. Servetus, while living in Vienne (historic city in southeastern France), angered Calvin by returning a copy of Calvin’s writings, Institutes, with critical comments in the margins. Servetus was arrested by the Roman Catholic Authorities on April 4 but escaped on April 7, 1553. He traveled to Geneva where he attended Calvin’s Sunday preaching service on August 13. Calvin promptly had Servetus arrested and charged with heresy for his disagreement with Calvin’s theology. The thirty-eight official charges included rejection of the Trinity and infant baptism. Servetus was correct in challenging Calvin’s false teaching about infant baptism for salvation, but he was heretical in his rejection of the doctrine of the Trinity. Servetus pleaded to be beheaded instead of the more brutal method of burning at the stake, but Calvin and the city council refused the quicker death method. Other Protestant churches throughout Switzerland advised Calvin that Servetus be condemned but not executed. Calvin ignored their pleas and Servetus was burned at the stake on October 27, 1553. John Calvin insisted that his men use green wood for the fire because it burned slower. Servetus was screaming as he was literally baked alive from the feet upward and suffered the heat of the flames for 30 minutes before finally succumbing to one of the most painful and brutal death methods possible. Servetus had written a theology book, a copy of which Calvin had strapped to the chest of Servetus. The flames from the burning book rose against Servetus’ face as he screamed in agony.
John Calvin celebrated and bragged of his killing of Servetus. Many theological and state leaders criticized Calvin for the unwarranted killing of Servetus, but it fell on deaf ears as Calvin advised others to do the same. Calvin wrote much in following years in a continual attempt to justify his burning of Servetus. Some people claim Calvin favored beheading, but this does not fit charges of heresy for which the punishment, as written by Calvin earlier, was to be burning at the stake. Calvin had made a vow years earlier that Servetus would never leave Geneva alive if he were ever captured, and Calvin held true to his pledge. Truly John Calvin is burning in Hell for his heresy, blasphemy of God and murder of many.
Another victim of Calvin’s fiery zeal was Gentile of an Italian sect in Geneva, which also numbered among its adherents Alciati and Gribaldo. More or less Unitarian in their views, they were required to sign a confession drawn up by Calvin in 1558. Gentile signed it reluctantly, but in the upshot he was condemned and imprisoned as a perjurer. He escaped only to be incarcerated twice at Berne where, in 1566, he was beheaded. Calvin also had thirty-four (34) women burned at the stake after accusing them of being witches who caused a plague that had swept through Geneva in 1545. The number of people murdered by John Calvin has been a dispute — not the fact that he murdered them. Calvinists reject the references describing John Calvin’s reign of terror because they worship him. John Calvin’s actions were very paganistic like his mentor, Saint Augustine. Jesus and all of the Apostles would have abhorred and condemned these blatant mass murders.
Puritanism – Written and researched by Margaret Odrowaz-Sypniewska, B.F.A.
“Calvin and Farel returned on September 13, 1541 and re-established their theocracy. Between 1542-1546, they banished seventy-six (76) and fifty-eight (58) executions took place, including thirty-four (34) women, who were burned at the stake for spreading the plague by magical means.”
John Calvin: His Life in Geneva – A Bible Study Resource.
Calvin: A Biography by Bernard Cottret.
“9. (page 180) February 1545 – “Freckles” Dunant dies under torture without admitting to the crime of spreading the plague. His body was then dragged to the middle of town and burned.
10. (page 180) 1545 – Following the incident with Dunant, several more men and women were apprehended including a barber and a hospital supervisor who had “made a pact with the devil.”
11. (page 180) March 7, 1545 – Two women executed by burning at the stake (presumably for the crime of sorcery, i.e. spreading the plague). CALVIN INTERCEDED apparently to have them executed sooner rather than later after additional time in prison. The Council followed his directive happily and urged the executioner to “be more diligent in cutting off the hands of malefactors.”
12. (page 180) 1545 – more executions, tortures carefully watched to prevent death. Most of the tortured refused to confess. Means of death varied a little to include decapitation. All under the crime of spreading the plague. Some committed suicide in their cells to avoid torture, afterward the rest were handcuffed. One woman then through [sic] herself through a window.
13. (page 208) 1545 – CALVIN HAD the magistrates seize Belot, an Anabaptist (against infant baptism) for stating that the Old Testament was abolished by the New. Belot was chained and tortured.
14. (page 180) May 16, 1545 – The last execution concerning the plague outbreak, bringing the total dead to 7 men and 24 women. A letter from CALVIN attests to 15 of these women being burned at the stake. CALVIN’S only concern was that the plague had not come to his house.
15. (page 189) April 1546 – Ami Perrin put on trial for refusing to testify against several friends who were guilty of having danced. She was incarcerated for refusal to testify.
16. (page 190) July 1546 – Jacques Gruet was accused of writing a poster against Calvin. He was arrested and tortured until he admitted to the crime. He was then executed.”
The citizens of Geneva hated John Calvin as he clearly stated. In 1554 Calvin wrote “Dogs bark at me on all sides. Everywhere I am saluted with the name of ‘heretic,’ and all the calumnies that can possibly be invented are heaped upon me; in a word, the enemies among my own flock attack me with greater bitterness than my declared enemies among the papists.” Calvin, quoted in Schaff, History, volume 8, page 496. The history of John Calvin’s reign of terror in Geneva is undisputed. Calvin himself kept historical records that have survived to this day.
John Calvin had no love, compassion, patience or tolerance for those who did not believe his Institutes. Criticism of Calvin’s Institutes was considered heresy for which the sentence was death by burning at the stake. To his dying day Calvin preached and taught from his works. By no means an aged man, he was worn out in these frequent controversies. On April 25, 1564, he made his will, leaving 225 French crowns, of which he bequeathed ten to his college, ten to the poor, and the remainder to his nephews and nieces. His last letter was addressed to Farel. He was buried without pomp in a spot which is not now ascertainable. In the year 1900 a monument of expiation was erected to Servetus in the Place Champel. Geneva has long since ceased to be the center of Calvinism.
John Calvin’s murder of people who held different doctrinal views, his failure to acknowledge or repent from his sins, his incomplete gospel, his placing of his own writings above the Bible, his distortion of God and the Scriptures, and his dependence upon infant baptism places into question his salvation. In all of his writings is not found a clear declaration of his salvation by faith in the birth, life, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Calvin was a cruel, murderous tyrant who considered himself to be the pope of Geneva. The Bible never advocates harming an individual due to his unbelief or lack of understanding. Jesus taught to “turn the other cheek” instead. None of the Apostles taught action against unbelievers but instead taught the believer to seek them out and present the gospel in love.
Mark 16:15 And He said to them, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”
John Calvin showed no signs of being a regenerate man. He became more murderous and cruel during his rule in Geneva. He showed no inclination to be conformed to the image of Christ as described in Scripture for those who have been saved. Notice that Romans 8:29 below says we are “predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son” and does not say we are predestined to be saved as taught by Calvin.
Romans 8:29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined [to] [be] conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
One should not have to study the works of John Calvin but should study his life first in order to arrive at the conclusion that he was an ungodly man who could only produce a distorted doctrine that opposes the true teachings of Scripture. Calvin’s actions were directly opposed to the teachings of Jesus and His Apostles.
Matthew 10:14 And whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet.
James 3:17-18 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. 18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.
1 John 2:6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
Calvin’s Margin Notes Supersede Scriptural Text
Calvin’s theology could not be ascertained by the typical student of the Bible without the external study of Calvin’s Institutes. Therefore, Calvin wrote commentary notes in the margin of the Bible to be used as the interpretation of the Scripture. A present-day review of these marginal notes shows they present doctrine that is not supported by the text. This commentary Bible with marginal notes came to be known as the Geneva Bible. Theodore de Beza (1519-1605) was the Protestant Reformer who succeeded John Calvin. Beza published the Geneva Bible in English between 1560 and 1611. William Whittingham, who was married to John Calvin’s sister, is believed to have assisted by translating most of the New Testament. He has been accused of having a theological bias and making other random changes in the translation. The source manuscripts for the work appear to have been the Textus Receptus and other Byzantine Greek manuscripts. The most disturbing feature of the Geneva Bible was the extensive commentary notes placed in the margins written by John Calvin, John Knox, Miles Coverdale, William Whittingham, Theodore Beza and Anthony Gilby. The marginal notes give an allegorical or philosophical explanation of Scripture rather than a literal explanation of the text. The Roman Catholic Church was enraged by the notes, because they deemed the act of confession of sin to men, the Catholic Bishops, as unjustified by Holy Scripture. Calvin can be congratulated for at least getting that doctrine correct.
The Geneva Bible and the doctrines of John Calvin spread across Europe as church leaders used the marginal notes as the basis for their lectures and preaching. King James I (1566-1625) was opposed to Calvinistic Presbyterianism and some claim he was infuriated by the Geneva Bible, because the marginal notes allowed disobedience to the King. This claim can be largely dismissed, because Calvin ruled as “King” of Geneva and allowed absolutely no disobedience. In the famous Hampton Court Conference, Dr. John Reynolds (a Puritan) requested that King James authorize the printing of a new Bible without the marginal notes. King James agreed. He authorized work to begin on the new Bible in 1604 with a team of fifty-four theologians and scholars, and it was printed in 1611. The Bible was to be a new translation from the Greek. The King James Version of the Bible was prepared from the Textus Receptus as well as many of the other 5,000 Greek manuscripts. It is known as the 1611 Authorized King James Version and held by many as the only “Inspired Word of God.”
The Dutch Church convened the Synod of Dordrecht in 1610 to resolve the dispute between Remonstrants (followers of Jacob Arminius) and the Reformed Church (followers of John Calvin) concerning the correct interpretation of the Bible. In the Reformed Churches of the Netherlands, Jacob Arminius began to teach doctrines contrary to the Reformed faith. The Remonstrants drew up five statements of doctrine in which they set forth their own views. The Calvinists answered the Five Points of the Arminians with their own, which have come to be known as the Five Points of Calvinism which form the acrostic T-U-L-I-P. The approval of the Calvinist position was sealed by a packed prejudiced Synod before it began, and the Calvinists relished the victory by murdering many of their opponents as they fled for their lives. This appeared to be a great victory for Calvinism at the time, but it has since been shown to have been the high point in their theological domination. Calvinism has continued to decline over the centuries, because John Calvin’s technique of terror is no longer allowed for the spread of his theology.
Neither Jesus nor any of the Apostles raised a finger against those who disagreed with them, but Calvinists continued to use the sword, beheading using an axe and burning at the stake as methods to eliminate any opposition well after the passing of John Calvin. Charles I succeeded King James in England. The Calvinists gained control of the English Parliament and waged a civil war against the king. They abolished episcopacy, ejected two thousand royalist ministers, summoned the Westminster Assembly, executed Archbishop Laud, and eventually executed the King himself in 1649.
Calvin’s Sovereignty Doctrine Distorts the Attributes of God
Calvinists are proud to proclaim, “The basic principle of Calvinism is the sovereignty of God.” This doctrine allowed John Calvin to misinterpret Scripture in any manner he desired in order to fit his Institutes theology. He simply claimed the sovereignty of God allowed it. God’s other attributes such as love, justice, mercy and grace became irrelevant so long as sovereignty reigned. John Calvin’s extreme definitions of sovereignty and sin (Total Depravity or Total Inability) laid the foundation for a religion that bears his name, Calvinism.
John Calvin falsely taught that God “elects” some people from eternity past to be saved while damning all of the others to an eternal Hell with no hope of being saved. This false doctrine is directly opposite to the Bible which teaches that God is “not willing that any should perish.” If salvation were entirely dependent on the sovereign God as taught by John Calvin then certainly none would perish, but salvation is dependent upon the free will of people to believe the true gospel by faith.
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning [His] promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
Certainly God is sovereign. However, John Calvin used sovereignty as an excuse to formulate doctrines which violated God’s other attributes. Calvin’s doctrines of Unconditional Election and Limited Atonement predestine much of humanity to eternal torment in violation of God’s attributes of love, justice, mercy and grace. Doctrines which are correctly interpreted from Scripture will not violate any of God’s attributes.
Certainly God is sovereign according to the definition of sovereign in a dictionary. God is Number One — the Most High, but God does not control every event and action of mankind as if people were puppets, as claimed by John Calvin. The Scripture verses below clearly show that the unbelief of the Children of Israel in the wilderness “limited the Holy One of Israel.” According to the false doctrine of John Calvin, God cannot be limited. Scripture says He can be limited. God could not secure the entry of the Children of Israel into the promised land as He desired because they would not move forward. So God left them in the wilderness for 40 years because of their unbelief, arrogance and rebellion.
Psalms 78:37 For their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant. 38 But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath. 39 For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again. 40 How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert! 41 Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.
Calvinism has been called “the archenemy of soul-winning” and rightly so. John Calvin’s false doctrine declares that some people are predestined by God from eternity past to spend eternity with Him by His sovereign grace while others are predestined to eternal torment. This doctrine causes one to question the need for presenting the gospel. If Calvinism were true, why bother? Those who have been predestined to salvation will be regenerated by God’s unfailing sovereign will, and the others cannot be saved no matter how effectively the gospel is presented, because they are not the elect.
But soul winning is not the major tragedy of Calvinism. Failure to present the gospel of Christ is the real problem. One can easily notice that Calvinists discuss and present Calvinism with the notion that they are presenting the gospel. They quote the writings of Calvin and his followers and quote those Bible verses they feel are most supportive of Calvinism. The Bible is not taught directly and without bias. This is the reason John Calvin and his early followers prepared the Geneva Bible, which contained Calvin’s teachings written in the margins. Teaching was done from the marginal notes in lieu of the Scriptural text. We will see in our study of Limited Atonement that Calvinism presents a false gospel.
The god worshiped by Calvinists has different attributes from those of the Almighty Eternal God “Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:4). The god of Calvinism is a false god who decides which people will spend eternity in hell by withholding faith from them. The god of Calvinism taunts the unbeliever with the verse “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” (Romans 10:9) all the while knowing that he (the god of Calvinism) has withheld the faith to do so. Calvinism presents a false gospel that neither offers eternal life nor allows salvation by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
As an example, Mormons (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) believe in a god and believe in a Jesus they say rose from the grave. However, Mormons are not born-again members of the Body of Christ. They are destined to spend eternity in hell. Calvinists will also spend eternity in hell. Calvinists believe in a false god and false Jesus with make-believe attributes much different from the true God and His Son, Jesus Christ, who took upon Himself the sins of the whole world.
“…Jesus Christ the righteous: 2 And he is the propitiation (atoning sacrifice) for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” 1 John 2:1-2
Calvin’s Predestination Doctrine Distorts the Character of God
Calvin’s doctrine of predestination teaches that God in eternity past established the course of all future events from the molestation of a child to a rocket trip to the moon. Calvin taught that God has decided in eternity past those persons who would spend eternity with Him and those who would endure eternal torment. This doctrine was not derived from the Bible but from the philosophical concepts called the “immutability of God” (unchangeable) and the “impassability of God” (unaffectable).
The pagan philosopher, Aristotle, born in 384 BC, wrote a book he called, Metaphysics. His reasoning concluded that “God can’t feel and can’t change.” This God must be unaffected by anything and unalterable. He is unchanging, for to change would be a weakness and change thus render Him less than the ultimate God. Aristotle’s God cannot love, cannot suffer and cannot be influenced. Saint Augustine incorporated this philosophy from Plato, Plotinus and Aristotle into his writings which were transferred to John Calvin. Thus Calvin’s doctrine of predestination was born.
We know from Scripture that God does change His mind. God does suffer. God is influenced by prayer. God can be sorrowful and God does love. God changes His intended purpose as He chooses in response to the actions of man. Calvin’s doctrine of predestination strips God of His character and is proven to be false by Scriptures that show God changing His mind in response to mankind’s prayer or repentance.
Romans 5:8 But God commendeth (demonstrates) his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
2 Kings 20:1-16 In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live. 2 Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the LORD, saying, 3 I beseech thee, O LORD, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore. 4 And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court, that the word of the LORD came to him, saying, 5 Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the LORD. 6 And I will add unto thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.
Genesis 6:5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. 7 And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
Jonah 3:10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.
The God of the Bible is certainly not the immutable, impassable God of Plato, Plotinus, Aristotle, Augustine and Calvin.
All great Christian fathers from the Apostles to Martin Luther taught that the sovereign God placed free will in mankind to choose either good or evil. This free will is present and obvious in Scripture before the fall of Adam and thereafter. Calvin incorporated the heresies of Augustine into his doctrines. Was the Apostle Paul such a poor teacher that his followers didn’t understand his teachings? Certainly not. All of the writings of Church leaders that came after Paul and before Augustine taught that mankind had a free will to either choose the gospel or reject it. The truth was presented in a beautiful expression of free will and the supportive work of the Holy Spirit by John Chrysostom (347-407 AD).
“God having placed good and evil in our power, has given us full freedom of choice; He does not keep back the unwilling, but embraces the willing.” (Homilies on Genesis, 19.1)
“All is in God’s power, but so that our free will is not lost. . . . It depends therefore on us and on Him. We must first choose the good, and then He adds what belongs to Him. He does not precede our willing, that our free will may not suffer. But when we have chosen, then He affords us much help. . . . It is ours to choose beforehand and to will, but God’s to perfect and bring to the end.” (On Hebrews Homily, 12)
John Calvin and his followers teach that God makes everything happen because of His sovereignty. This doctrine makes God the author of sin, which is blasphemy. God allows Satan and man to do things but does not make them do so. This is clearly presented in Scripture. God kept the His dispensing of Grace a mystery because Satan, his evil demons and people under his control (rulers of this age), would not have killed Jesus had they known about the era of Grace. In Jesus’ death we become victorious over sin. We can now come into the Throne of Grace and live forever with God. The Dispensation of Grace was kept a mystery hidden by God in order to give us the way of salvation.
1 Corinthians 2:6-8 Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: 7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: 8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
Scripture Proves John Calvin Taught False Doctrines
John Calvin falsely taught that God draws only those to Himself whom He elects to be saved. Calvin taught that those chosen could not resist the call. According to John Calvin a person is elected by God, saved by God’s grace and given faith to believe as the final step. Calvin taught that this series of actions by Jesus Christ and God cannot be resisted by the elected person. On the other hand, Calvin taught that most people were not drawn by Jesus. Calvin taught that those not drawn by Jesus could not believe and could not be saved no matter what they did. Calvinists must twist Scripture, ignore the clear message given, and literally butcher the text in order to keep John Calvin’s chain of false doctrines from total collapse. Jesus clearly and directly spoke doctrines that refute these false doctrines of John Calvin.
John 12:32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.
1 Timothy 2:3-4 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; 4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
Jesus does draw all people to Himself. Jesus said He will draw all people unto Himself if He were to be lifted up and crucified. God desires all mankind to be saved, but most people resist being drawn. John Calvin’s doctrine of “Irresistible Grace” is clearly shown to be incorrect by Jesus’ clear declaration.
We believe that salvation is by grace through faith based upon the redemptive work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus took upon Himself the sins of all mankind by His death on the cross, and His resurrection from the dead provides salvation to all who believe. All who receive the Lord Jesus Christ through faith are born again of the Holy Spirit and thereby become the children of God.
Calvinism encompasses many of the features which are characteristic of a Christian cult. Calvinists hold John Calvin in such high esteem that his writings and teachings are studied and quoted in preference to Scripture. His teachings are used by Calvinists to interpret Scripture rather than the sound doctrine of using Scripture to interpret Scripture. John Calvin defined important doctrinal Bible words differently than the historic Christian interpretation. These erroneous definitions are needed to give logical support to Calvin’s blasphemous doctrines. This technique is typical of cults such as Mormons, who hold Joseph Smith in high esteem and base their doctrines on his writings. Calvinists are so indoctrinated with these false definitions that they cannot understand the opposition to their doctrines. Naturally Calvinists believe the false doctrines of John Calvin, because they believe the false definitions of major doctrinal words. The human brain is easily tricked when one does not search diligently for the truth. Calvinists have typically taught from the marginal notes in the Calvinist’s Geneva Bible in preference to the Scriptural text. King James ordered the King James Version translation of the English Bible to be printed in order to rid the church of Calvin’s marginal notes. John Calvin’s doctrines are an incomplete and inaccurate gospel which is not in agreement with the Holy Scriptures. This study of Calvinism will easily prove the doctrines of John Calvin to be unorthodox and contrary to the historic Christian Church.
History of the New Testament Scriptures.
Just as John Calvin “stole” Geneva to set up his personal kingdom with himself as “Pope,” modern Calvinists are stealing churches. Old Baptist churches in the United States are a prime target. A Calvinist will apply for an empty pastorship while keeping his belief in Calvinistic doctrine a secret. Upon being offered the position by unsuspecting church members he begins to bring in other undercover Calvinists who are promoted to ruling positions as deacons and elders. The undercover Calvinists quickly reach a majority in the ruling body of the church. The church appears to be prosperous and growing, because the undercover Calvinists recruit only other Calvinists as new members. The new members are all a part of the scheme. These wolves in sheep’s clothing make a power play after gaining a majority control. They force out the older non-Calvinist church members one at a time with rudeness, intimidation and insults. Slick scheme! The Calvinists have just stolen church property that could be worth $5 to $10 million or more. Calvinists rarely build a new church on their own. They may be proud of their success in stealing the church, but in reality they have only secured a ticket to the Lake of Fire.
Revelation 20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
The Five Points of Calvinism which form the acrostic T-U-L-I-P will be shown here to distort and blaspheme the true attributes of God, the true nature of man and the Holy Scriptures. John Calvin did not summarize his teaching into five categories that have come to be known as T-U-L-I-P. The followers of John Calvin have summarized his false writings in this manner. The most faithful followers of John Calvin hold to all five of the doctrines and proudly call themselves Five Point Calvinists. They generally hold others in complete disdain who call themselves Calvinists but reject one or more of the five doctrines. Most are either four or five point Calvinists. The Five Point Calvinists argue that rejecting any one of the five points makes all of John Calvin’s doctrines collapse. This is the only claim made by Five Point Calvinists that is true. They do collapse. All five of the points are false and the rejection of any one of the points destroys them all. The following will show that each can be proven by sound Biblical interpretation to be false. T-U-L-I-P is the gospel according to John Calvin and his followers. Without T-U-L-I-P they do not know the gospel according to the Bible as proclaimed by the Apostle Paul. They are lost.
Calvinism’s TULIP
Total Depravity
Unconditional Election
Limited Atonement
Irresistible Grace
Perseverance of the Saints
Pastors Who Preach Calvinism Have Responded
Many pastors have written directly from their church website with insulting, hate mail after reading the truths presented here. These pastors are obviously not born-again, Spirit-filled Christians. They are fake Christians. Calvinistic preachers are our modern-day Pharisees who put Jesus on the cross. They are wolves in sheep’s clothing, preaching “another gospel” that the Apostle Paul warned us about. They are in the ministry for power, control and money. They are certainly destined to spend eternity in hell. Their letters have revealed their corrupt hearts to the Holy Spirit.
Canons of Dort – Wikipedia.com
“The Canons of Dort, or Canons of Dordrecht, formally titled The Decision of the Synod of Dort on the Five Main Points of Doctrine in Dispute in the Netherlands, is the judgment of the National Synod held in the Dutch city of Dordrecht in 1618 / 19. At the time, Dordrecht was often referred to in English as Dort.
Today, the Canons of Dort form one of the confessional standards of many of the Reformed churches around the world, including the Netherlands, Australia, and North America. Their continued use as a standard still forms an unbridgeable problem preventing close cooperation between the followers of Arminius, the Remonstrants, and Dutch Reformed Churches.
These canons are in actuality a judicial decision on the doctrinal points in dispute from the Arminian controversy of that day. Following the death of Jacobus Arminius (1560-1609), his followers set forth a Remonstrance (published in 1610) in five articles formulating their points of departure from the stricter Calvinism of the Belgic Confession. The Canons are the judgment of the Synod against this Remonstrance. Regardless, Arminian theology later received official acceptance by the State and has since continued in various forms within Protestantism.
The Canons were not intended to be a comprehensive explanation of Reformed doctrine, but only an exposition on the five points of doctrine in dispute. These Canons set forth what is often referred to as the Five Points of Calvinism.”
The Decision of the Synod of Dort ruled in favor of the doctrines of Calvinism, because the Calvinist has “fixed” the outcome beforehand. After the decision was rendered, the Calvinists proceeded to murder the supporters of Arminius in true fashion to the mass murderer they followed, John Calvin. The un-Christlike actions of the Calvinists prove that at Dort they truly lost any hope of ever being representative of Christianity.
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Name Cult Warning: Beware of the Yahweh, Yahushua, Yahuah Cults!

WARNING: Satan and his human agents are trying to steal the name of Jesus Christ outside of which no soul can be saved (Acts 4:12).
Yahweh Only? Yahushua? Yahuah?
Fake Jewish name cult devils busted.
“Yahweh” was a Canaanite moon god from what I’ve discovered. That is NOT the God of the Hebrews! NOT the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. False churches have been promoting Yahweh since 2019, but it that name is nowhere in the Bible. The Masons are trying to normalize and equate him with the God of the Bible.” Rozy Uziel
When unsaved men, the world over, take the name of the LORD in vain, which name is that? The name of Jesus Christ. Why? Because Satan, the father of all lost souls, hates his sworn enemy – Jesus Christ.
BEWARE OF THE YAH CULT DEVILS. “YHWH” appears not even one time in the Bible, the King James Bible. Jehovah appears 4 times and JESUS CHRIST and JESUS and Christ appear hundreds of times. Case closed. SATAN is the one who wants to steal glory of JESUS CHRIST, the name above all names outside of which NO ONE can be saved (Acts 4:12; Philippians 2:9-11) The name of JESUS which appears 983 times in the King James Bible.
EVERY knee will bow to the name of Jesus. EVERY tongue confess the name of Jesus Christ.
BEWARE of the jewish-cult, judaizing heretics promoting lies such as denying the name of JESUS which appears 983 times in the King James Bible. Block them Titus 3:10-11.
WHEN YOU SEE ANYONE who is using the yahweh, yahuah, etc names for God, supposedly for God…. you are dealing with an antichrist, 100% of the time. Be not deceived saints. And these are some of the nastiest of devils. They were only deceived to begin with due to not truly loving the truth of God and now they have been sent by God Himself “strong delusion.” (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12).
“Jesus Christ … Neither is there salvation in any other: for THERE IS NONE OTHER NAME under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Acts 4:10, 12
All the divine power is in Heaven and earth is specifically invested in the name of Jesus Christ. JESUS CHRIST is the name of the LORD to whom every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that HE is LORD.
“Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10 That at the name of JESUS every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:9-11
There are many who act like they are Jews today. Yet there is only one body of Christ, one “Israel of God”:
“And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.” Galatians 6:16
“Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.” Revelation 3:9
“JESUS IS THE NEW COVENANT NAME JUST AS GOD GAVE A NAME TO ABRAHAM (GOD ALMIGHTY) and a different one to Moses.. ELOHIM …..Exodus 6:2 EACH COVENANT HAS A NEW NAME! … AND HIS NAME SHALL BE CALLED JESUS…FOR HE SHALL SAVE HIS PEOPLE FROM THEIR SINS (Matthew 1:21)…JESUS CHRIST IS THE NEW COVENANT NAME OF THE COVENANT OF GRACE!” Russel
“And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. 9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10 That at the name of JESUS every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11 And that every tongue should confess that JESUS CHRIST is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:8-11
Shannon Cook writes:
“It’s the same people that believe if we don’t refer to Him as Yah, Yahuah (and many other Jewish names) that He hears us not. Another lie of Satan. The Name Jesus is simply a translation:
The proper name Jesus /ˈdʒiːzəs/ used in the English language originates from the Latin form of the Greek name Ἰησοῦς (“Iēsous”), a rendition of the Hebrew Yeshua (ישוע), also having the variants Joshua or Jeshua. In a religious context the name refers to Jesus, the central figure of Christianity.”
“YHWH is Satan. The true name of Satan, the Kabalists say, is YAHWEH (GOD) reversed: for Satan is not a black god, but a negation of God … the Kabala imagined Him to be a most occult light.” Morals and Dogma. P. 102
Ever notice all the Yahweh, Yeshua, Yahushua, Yahuah, etc., name cult people lately? Does it seem like this movement is growing? People like this usually have other strange, cultish beliefs and are usually contentious, not even born again. In fact, I had an intense, hour or two long conversation with a man about this. He was well versed in why the name Jesus Christ was not sufficient. He displayed no fruit of the Holy Spirit and so finally, I asked him if he was born again. He had never heard that phrase that came right out of the Messiah’s mouth as a “must” – mandatory for salvation (John 3:3, 7). That man was being beguiled by wolves. I was privileged to preach the convicting Law and Gospel to him (Galatians 3:24; 1 Timothy 1:7-10).
Sinful men are always looking for a way to one-up or trump others instead of bowing down low in humility to serve them and simply reading and obeying God’s Word. This is what is at the root of the whole name cult, Hebrew Root (HR), judaizing devils. This sin is called in the Bible “emulations” which means striving to excel at the expense of others.
The devil wants the name of JESUS CHRIST to be replaced, not upheld and so now we have a dozen or more names for “God”, supposedly. Those who peddle such are not upholding the Head, Jesus Christ (Colossians 2:18-19). Oh and have you noticed that these names keep on multiplying?
The name cult dupes are everywhere these days! I usually tell them that I have personally cast out devils in the Name of Jesus Christ, the name above all names and devils, and ask if they wish to argue with that!!! I also ask them if they’ve ever cast out a devil in the name of Yahweh, Yahushua, etc. The look on their faces is priceless. The devil knows THAT name – the name of Jesus Christ!!!! Jesus Christ is the English rendering of the Hebrew Joshua Messiah …. Jesus means Jehovah is Salvation.
“Yahweh” is a fake “bible” rendering. The word appears no where in the King James Bible. Jehovah does though.
Exodus 6 KJB
“Then the LORD said unto Moses, Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh: for with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land. 2 And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the LORD (Heb. Jehovah): 3 And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.
Also, in verse 2 “LORD” here from the Hebrew definition:
יְהֹוָה
yehôvâh
yeh-ho-vaw’
From H1961; (the) self Existent or eternal; Jehovah, Jewish national name of God: – Jehovah, the Lord. Compare H3050, H3069.
The Sacred Name Hebrew Roots Cult
Leona Legg writes:
“I wonder how many have been successful casting devils out with Yeshua, Yeshuah, Yahshua, Yahshuah (none can even agree on one name)?”
In order to take the emphasis and worship away from the LORD Himself, the false teachers of this movement puts emphasis on how the actual name is pronounced. They teach that God won’t hear or move on the behalf of someone who calls upon His name in sincerity of heart because they don’t pronounce correctly His name in a language foreign to them. Nonsense!
Let’s stick with the English rendering of Jesus Christ. All of Heaven’s power and authority are invested therein (Matthew 28:18-20). It’s before this Almighty King of Heaven that “every knee shall bow and every tongue confess…”
“Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:9-11
FEEDBACK:
“Most of this confusion is purposely caused for the benefit of Israel. What the Hebrew Roots movement is basically doing is winning converts to Zionism. A person who says ‘Yahushua’ and constantly says Torah, Torah, Torah, is usually about as pro-Zion as they come, and doesn’t have any problem with changing, ignoring, and even lying about what the Scriptures say. Additionally, more often than not a Hebrew Roots follower came to it by way of charismatic Pentecostalism, in that they usually don’t have a good grasp of the Bible to begin with. I remember following this movement briefly, praying that one day I would actually hear Jonathan Cahn, or Mark Biltz, or Joel Richardson actually preach from the New Testament. Never happened. They aren’t interested in the Good News, but in about winning to Judaism for Israel’s benefit.” unknown
“All I know is that when I called upon the name of the LORD to save and deliver me almost 30 years ago, it was the name of Jesus! When I called upon the powerful name of JESUS, I was saved, delivered, and baptized by the Holy Spirit. My life was radically and forever changed! So, how is it now that some claim He will only respond to His Hebrew name, and then, only if it is pronounced and spelled correctly? When will man ever cease from trying to contain God into a box and make Him into who their small minds and hearts conceive Him to be???? With all their Torah knowledge and adherence to Jewish customs and laws, Jesus Christ, in the flesh, was anything but men’s preconceived notions of the Messiah. The more stubborn we become in our ways to be the only ‘right’ ones in our knowledge of God, the more susceptible we become to religious spirits who block His true glory and nature. Jesus Christ is LORD to the glory of God the Father! And we don’t deny that God does refer to Himself as YHWH. That is the preincarnate name of the Living God. I believe that we should reverence and adore that Holy Name. And there certainly is nothing wrong in referring to Jesus in His Hebrew name, Yeshuah. But when it places limits on God Himself and who can worship Him and call upon Him, and makes a religion of it in and of itself, literally placing more significance on a spelling and pronunciation on a name over the persons of God Himself, that is ridiculous and dangerous.” Rebecca S.
MORE FEEDBACK:
“Hallelujah for spiritual sanity. These people are deluded and have no concept of history or even languages. I told them there are languages round the world which have no “sh” sound (modern Greek) or no “y” sound (many Spanish-speakers have trouble with a word starting with the “y” sound). I asked “do you think Jesus doesn’t hear Greeks, Chinese, Russians etc when they pronounce His name in their language?” But not once has anyone responded who CARES what Christians outside their narrow, Anglophone Judaizing circle say or do. And that says it all… I saw a post where they couldn’t even agree if it was “Yah-shua” or “Yashua” or “Yeshua”. They failed to realize it would be an Latin alphabet and English phonetic transcription of the Hebrew alphabet anyway. And all of it demonstrates their pride and CARNALITY. It’s like God is separating the wheat from the tares now…so we know who we can rely on as the spiritual battles get tougher. I can count these phonies (the ones who dig their heels in and refuse to listen to rebuke) out” Eileen H.
“When I meet new people on here then see they are getting hung up on calling my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ “Yah” or “yahwuah” or whatever kind of off the wall thing they’ve come up with I instantly sigh then click delete or just remove myself from that group. Some even have large followings. If you can’t call the Messiah by His name it’s an instant let down and I just move on. Arguing is impossible. What name do they try to cast the devils out with? We’re under a constant attack basic now.
There is POWER IN THE NAME OF JESUS.
POWER, POWER, WONDER WORKING POWER…IN THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB.
JESUS IS THE LAMB OF GOD WHO TAKES AWAY THE SINS OF THE WORD.
BY NO OTHER NAME CAN MAN BE SAVED….” Darla
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Abiding
Be Not Moved Away from the Hope of the Gospel [podcast]

“Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.” Acts 14:22
“IF ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;” Colossians 1:23
OSAS is a lie from hell. OSAS/eternal security was Satan’s first lie and so it’s blasphemy to teach this doctrine of devils (Gen 2:17; 3:4; 1 Timothy 4:1; Hebrews 3:6, 12-14; 10:26-39; 2 Peter 2:20-21; Jude 4, etc.).
The concept of an un-conditional eternal security is not established in Scripture …. except for it being Satan’s first teaching, his first lie – the “ye shall NOT surely die” lie (Genesis 2:17, 3:4).
Eternal Security/Once Saved Always Saved is a Doctrine of Devils | 100’s of Scripture-rich Edifying Podcasts here
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